"The Chosen" is "Close" to Fully Funding Season 4

The team behind the streaming show about the life of Christ hopes to hit its goal before production wraps this summer.

Lead actor Jonathan Roumie and Vanessa Benavente appear in a scene from "The Chosen." Image: "The Chosen"/from Instagram.

Despite being more than halfway through filming its fourth season, The Chosen still has not raised all the money it needs to finance it. There is good news, however, according to show creator and director Dallas Jenkins, who says they are "close to...being fully funded."

A graphic from the Come and See Foundation showing how much money has been raised so far for Season 4. Image: Come and See Foundation.

In a wide-ranging livestream this week for fans, he stated that some 70,000 people have contributed to the financing of Season 4 through the Come and See Foundation, a charitable outfit that raises money to finance the show. According to their website, more than $24 million of the $40 million goal is now in hand, as you can see in the accompanying graphic (those numbers reflect only the needed contributions from supporters of the show and do not include the matching funds from the foundation, which are also featured in the graphic).

But with maybe a month and a half to go until production is complete, that would seem a long way from where the show needs to be. Jenkins, however, says some generous - and evidently well-heeled - benefactors are prepared to step into the breach with matching funds of their own.

"To ensure our goal of being fully funded by the end of the filming of Season 4, there are actually a couple of families who have agreed to match every dollar contributed to the Come and See Foundation."

That will be in addition to the aforementioned matching funds that Come and See itself provides and uses for marketing and translation of the show into other languages. This link will take you to that non-profit's website, if you yourself would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help finance the show.

Jenkins hits on lots of other subject matter in his livestream, including a replacement actor for the character of Philip, a behind-the-scenes documentary about Season 3, and yet another explanation of the controversy surrounding a homosexual "pride" flag recently displayed on the set of the show, which we previously covered here. If you are interested in watching the livestream, you can do so via the YouTube link below.